BerniePortalTM from Bernard Health:
Online Benefits Administration Guide
So much insurance paperwork!! What a nightmare. And it all seems so
unnecessary in today’s digital age, where we have so much evidence that
going online saves money and time.
That is why more and more small and medium-sized employers are getting
rid of it, and putting their benefits administration online.
Who is this guide for?
As an employer, maybe you just want to make annual enrollment go more
smoothly. Or maybe your goal is to project a more positive, modern image
to employees and new hires. Or maybe you have high turnover, or a lot of
salespeople, so time is money and you want to eliminate all the wasted time
associated with insurance company paperwork.
As a health benefits broker, maybe you are looking for an innovative edge to
help you win the trust of new clients in the marketplace. Or maybe you
want to project a higher level of value to your current clients. Or maybe you
want save on your own overhead. It could also be you want to make it
easier to help your clients offer new benefits to their employees.
What is included in this guide?
This guide features the Top 10 Reasons Small & Medium-Sized
Employers Are Going Online. Then, we’ll address the most common
Online Benefits Administration FAQs.
By the time you finish reading this, you will have a better understanding of
what online benefits administration can mean for your organization.
If you’d like more information, call us for a free consultation at
1-800-599-4480 or sign up for one online. We look forward to speaking
with you!
Top 10 Reasons
Small & Medium Sized Employers Are Going Online
1. Minimize benefits enrollment mistakes
Ever have ID cards arrive late? Ever see an ID card with a mis-spelled name?
Ever missed getting the employee’s children enrolled? How did that go over?
When you administer benefits with paperwork, a lot of mistakes are inevitable.
Going online minimizes mistakes. This saves employers and their employees,
as well as brokers and insurance companies, a lot of time and money.
2. Minimize payroll deduction mistakes
Do you manually maintain a spreadsheet of all employees, their benefit
selections, and their payroll deductions? And do you compile it manually from
the paper forms they fill out?
Keying in all that data is time-consuming and leads to more mistakes than if
the spreadsheet were automatically generated, as it is when you do this online.
3. Minimize time it takes employees to sign up
Do your employees, spouses, and new hires hate insurance paperwork? Most
do. The paper forms ask questions they don’t know the answers to, or that are
not relevant to their situation. As a result, people delay on completing it.
Going online makes it easier for employees, as you can ensure they are only
asked questions that are necessary, and the cleaner interface of the right online
system even makes signing up a pleasure, rather than drudgery.
4. Project a more positive, modern image to employees
Many employers strive to project a positive image to their employees and new
hires about being a great place to work - being ahead of the times. Broken
benefits admin processes hurts this image.
Many employers view going online as part of their effort to project a positive
image to employees. Happier employees is a big benefit of going online.
5. Better communication to spouses
Which benefits to choose is often a family decision. In fact, it may be that the
spouse at home is the lead decision-maker on benefits, not your employee.
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When your employee is asked to take a stack of benefits paperwork home to
their spouse, it is more likely that the spouse will feel like not all of the
information made it home. When you go online with the right system, the
spouse will be able to login to your organization’s benefits portal easily, and
feel confident that all of the information is at his/her fingertips.
A happy spouse is a happy employee is a happy employer :)
6. Make it easier to change insurance companies
No one wants to change insurance companies every year. That said, sometimes
change is necessary. This can be a nightmare, because when you change all
employees have to fill out new forms. Furthermore, the decision to change
often takes place very close to your insurance renewal date, putting a lot of
pressure on the whole process.
When you go online, this process is greatly simplified. Your employees just
login and make their selections. Then, you use the spreadsheet or PDF election
forms to communicate all employee information to the new insurance company.
This saves time, and minimizes mistakes. That means happier employees.
7. Compete better with larger employers’ benefit packages
Historically, large employers with big HR departments have been able to offer
more benefits to employees than smaller employers. Administration costs of
offering extra benefits, even those that are 100% employee-paid, were too
much for the smaller employer.
Now, with the right online system, admin costs related to offering additional
benefits are much lower. Adding 100% employee-paid long term disability, for
example, is just another box for the employee to check. The same goes for a
lot of other benefits. As a result, many employers go online to take away the
edge that the larger employers used to have related to offering more benefits.
8. Keep better records
How many file cabinets do you have with old paper forms that employees filled
out for benefits? Are all the forms there? Are they right? When you need one,
are you always able to find it easily?
Going online makes all of this easier. The right system will store all of the
information for each employee, with what they selected this year and in all prior
years. This is a big time-saver.
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9. Minimize liability
When you keep better records, you minimize liability. If an employee thinks he
signed up for “+ family” dental, he can be upset when his wife goes to the
dentist and is told she is not on the plan. It is important to have a clean record
of what the employee chose in a situation like that.
Making it easy for employees to update their beneficiaries for employer-paid
life insurance is also important. Life changes like divorce can cause employees
to want to change who they had named as a beneficiary in the past.
Going online makes all of this easier. Records are cleaner, and it is easier for
employees to update their selections.
10. Save money
We’ve covered how the right online system will save you and your employees a
lot of time. It also minimizes mistakes, and leads to happier employees.
All of this adds up to saving money, too. If you believe that “time is money”,
then saving time is saving money. Besides saving money that way, improving
this process also generates hard dollar savings. Fewer billing issues with
insurance companies like getting billed for an employee who should have been
terminated is one example of that. Another is no longer needing to print as
many benefit summaries and forms as you were before going online.
There is no question you’ll save money with the right online solution.
So there you have it, the top ten reasons employers are putting their benefits
administration online. See below for some FAQs. If you have more questions
or want to know how this would work for your specific organization, sign up for
a free consultation online. Or, go ahead and call us for a free consultation at
1-800-599-4480.
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Online Benefits Administration FAQs
Okay, I see the benefits of going online. But what do these systems cost?
Great question. There are a lot of online benefits administration products out
there, and they charge differently. Besides the BerniePortalTM, you can find
systems from companies such as Benefitfocus and bswift. Payroll providers
such as Paychex and ADP also offer online administration.
Systems generally use one of three pricing scenarios:
1. Per employee per month (PEPM). You are charged a certain dollar amount
for every employee in the system. This can range from $2 PEPM up to $8
PEPM or more. So, if you have 100 employees and the cost is $4 PEPM,
then it would cost you $400/month. This can be expensive, but these
systems also often include add-on features like online wellness videos.
2. Commissions related to “worksite” products. The online administration
company does not charge anything directly, but they require that you let
them offer an array of “worksite” products to your employees like cancer
or critical illness insurance. They are compensated through the
commissions on these products when they sell them to your employees.
3. Flat fee. You pay a flat monthly or annual fee for use and support of the
web-based software. Generally the most affordable, these systems are
known for just getting the job done without the frills.
The BerniePortalTM falls into the third category. There are three editions of the
BerniePortal, and all three include all functionality:
1. Standard: Employers up to 35 employees: $10 / year
2. Plus: Employers over 35 employees: $99/month
3. Ultimate: includes integration with carriers: $199/month
How long does it take to set up an online administration system?
This depends on what kind of system you are using.
“Flat fee” systems like the BerniePortalTM take the least amount of time. For
example, you can get the BerniePortalTM up and ready for employees to enroll in
as little as an hour. Most “PEPM systems” take longer, sometimes up to six or
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eight weeks depending on the complexity of your benefits package and who
you are working with.
Why would I pay more for a system that takes 6-8 weeks+ to set up?
Most small and medium-sized employers wouldn’t. Larger employers,
however, often have much more complex needs and want all of the bells and
whistles that the more expensive systems can offer.
If you place a high value on simplicity and need a system that is easy to
implement, then you’ll probably find a flat fee system like the BerniePortalTM to
be the right match for you.
What are some features I should look for in an online system?
You’ll want to make sure, at a minimum, that the system has these features:
1. Great user experience
2. Benefits-savvy support
3. Easy set-up and maintenance
4. Automated spreadsheet compilation of elections / payroll deductions
5. Email notifications
6. PDF creation of individualized election sheets for each employee
7. E-signature with time/date stamp
8. Security
9. Year-round benefits portal
10.Qualifying event maintenance
11.Roadmap for further technological enhancements
The BerniePortalTM includes all of these features.
Have more questions? Sign up for a free consultation online. Or, go ahead and
call us at 1-800-599-4480. We look forward to speaking with you!
©Bernard Health 2011-2012
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